Boat.



H. B. HILLS.

BOAT.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 5'. 1911.

1,243,938. Patented oct. 23,1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

WIT/IESS.'

H. B. HlLLS.

BOAT.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 5. |917.

1 ,243,93., Patented Oct. 23, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- Y ...e n. mans, or armaron, new maaar.

BQAT. v

l Specication of Letters Eatent. Patented (hat. 23, 1917,

Application led May 5, 1917. Serial No. 166,518.

To all lwhom t may concern.'

y Beit Enown thatI, HARRY B. HILLS, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, and resident of Riverton, county of Burlington,

State of New Jersey, have invented a certainnew and. useful Improvementin Boats,

of which the following is a true and exact description, reference beinghad tcthe ac companylng drawings,` which form a part il@ thereof.

are

i 4and with a corresponding reduction My present invention relates toboats and particularly to the construction of metal boats used as shipsboats or lifeboats, and the general object of my invention is to providea boat suitable for the purpose men-- tioned which shall be simple andinexpensive of construction, inherently strong and of high stability. Y

A distinguishing characteristic of my invention is the formation of aboat hull of desirable shape out of a comparatively small number ofmetal plates, the surfaces of which while curved are formed altogether,or for the most part, of straight line elements.

vin a preferred practical mode of carrying out my invention I form eachplate in sections which merge in o one another, and

each of which forms a portion 'of the wall of a hollow cone, though someof the plate sections may be dat, cylindrical or ellipsoidal withoutinterfering with the attainment of the general object of my invention.

` The. invention possesses the distinct practical advantage that platesof the character described maybe given their special shape by,subjecting dat blanks to simpie bending operations, the curvature at anypoint of a plate being transverse to the straight iine element of thesurface of the plate passing through that point. in the ordinarypractice of my invention the blanks are bent about forms into thedesired shape. The formation of thev plates by simple bending operationsavoids the necessity' for special and more expensive shaping operations,and in practice makes possible the construction of a boat from a smallernumber of plates amount of riveting required.

The various features of novelty which .characterize my invention arepointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming apart of this speciiication. For a better understanding of the invention,however, and the advantages possessed by it, reference should be had tothe accompanying 'in the drawings and descriptive matter, in which Ihave illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of my invention.

Of the drawings:

Figure l 'is an elevation of a ships 'boat constructed in accordancewith the present invention; x

Fig. 2 is aplan View of the boat shown in Fiel;

Fig. 3 is atransverse-section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. l;

Fig. 4: is a diagrammatic front end view or body plan;

Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view with the boat shown in side elevation;

Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic view with the boat shown in front elevation;and

Fig. 7 is a diagrammatic view with a portion of the boat shown in plan.

In the desirable embodiment of my invention illustrated in the drawings,the skin of the boat is made up of two side plates A, and two bottomplates B. The two bottom plates B are provided at their adjacent edgeswith parallel flange portions B, which, with the intervening keel C, areriveted together by rivets D. The plates B are also formed with Hangsportions B2'which rise slightly above the bilge knuckle, and arefastened by rivets D to the overlapping lower edges of the plates A. Theplates A are provided at the opposite ends of the boat with flangeportions A riveted to the stem and the stern post of the boat. ln theboat, as shown, the opposite vends of the hull body are alike. rhe boatis shown as stiiiened by attaching two chang pieces F to each plate A,one chang piece being at the top of the plate and the other at the levelof the thwarts G. As shown, the boat is provided with longitudinallyrunning side seats H mounted on'the thwarts G. Uuderneath the seats arearranged the air tanks I, and bottom boards K run along the upper ysidesof the bottom plates B..

As diagrammatically illustrated in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, each plate A may beregarded as formed in tive sections, namely a middle section made up ofconical surface elements 0, two end sections each made up of conicalelements L, and two intermediate sections made up of conical elements M.One of the conical elements M at each Aend ofA one of the conicalelements 0. rll`he apices L and M of the cones, of which the lines L andM res ectively are elements, ap ear in Figs. 5 an 6. For convenience ofi lustration the elements L and M are shown in Figs. 5 and 6 as of halfthe relative lengths actually given them in a preferred boatconstruction devised andbuilt by me. Itis understood, however, that myinvention is not limited to any special proportioning of such dimension.The cone of Which the lines '0 are elements has its apex so far removedfrom the boat that with the scale of the drawings of Figs. 5 and 6 thedierent lines O appear to be parallel. ln Fig. 7 the dotted lines O2, M2and L2 represent intersections of the cones of which the lines O, M andL are elements respectively, by a plane parallel to the surface of theWater.

The bottom plates B are each formed, as shown, with a central conicalsurface portion of which the elements are represented by the lines Q,and conical end sections. The lines P shown represent the elements ofthe conical end surface of the left hand end ot the rear bottom late Bof the boat, as it appears in Fig. 5. represents the apex of the cone ofwhich the lines P shown in Figs. 5 and 6 ,are elements. The apex of thecone of which the lines Q are elements is so far from the boat that thediierent elements Q shown in Fig. 5 appear practically as parallellines.,

In practice, the plates A and B are given their general shapes bybending them about forms, and 'without subjecting them to any l naeaeeesame time the curvature given the pla'tes is of a character and extentsuicient to give A the plate great strength and rigidity to resistforces tending to deform the hull of the boat. After the plates are bentto shape they are subjected to a forging or Hanging operation toproperly form the flange portions B and B2 on the bottom plates B andthe flange ortions A at the ends of the side plates The boat shown andformed in the manner described is obviously relatively simple andinexpensive to construct, and well adapted to be turned out in greatrapidity when built in numbers. The shape of hull, and the fact thatthis shape lends itself to a relatively low placing of the seats H makespossible a boat of desirably high stability.

Having now described my invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. A boat having its hull formedl wholly or in part of plates eachcomprising sections forming parts of hollow cones, the axes of which aretransverse to the longitudinal axis of the boat.

2. A boat having its hull formed of curved metal plates each so curvedthat through any point in the surface thereof a straight line elementpasses which is inclined to other straight line surface elements of theplate but does .not intersect therewith within the margin of the plate.

` RY B. Hints.

